[Therapeutic effect of intradermal needling combined with rehabilitation intervention on knee osteoarthritis in the middle and early stages].

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To observe the effect of intradermal needing combined with rehabilitation intervention on middle and early knee osteoarthritis. METHODS: Seventy patients were randomly divided into an observation group and a control group, 35 cases in each group. Excluding the dropping cases, finally, 34 cases in the observation group and 32 cases in the control group were included in the statistics. Intradermal needing combined with rehabilitation intervention were given in the observation group, the intradermal needing was applied at Dubi (ST 35), Neixiyan (EX-LE 8), Xuehai (SP 10), Liangqiu (ST 34), Yanglingquan (GB 34), ashi point, and retained for 24 h; the simple conventional rehabilitation intervention was given in the control group. The visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to evaluate knee pain before treatment, the end of initial treatment, 1 month after treatment, and 3 months after treatment. The Western Ontario and McMaster Osteoarthritis index (WOMAC) was used to assess the joint function of the knee, the active knee flexion range (ROM) was used to assess the joint mobility of the knee before treatment and 1 month after treatment, and the efficacy of the two groups was evaluated. RESULTS: At the end of the initial treatment, the VAS score in the observation group were significantly improved as compared with that before treatment and the control groups (P<0.05), but there was no significant difference in the control group compared with that before treatment (P>0.05). After 1 month of treatment, the VAS score, WOMAC score and ROM measurement in the two groups were significantly improved as compared with those before treatment (P<0.05), and the observation group was superior to the control group (P<0.05); the total effective rate in the observation group was 97.1% (33/34), which was better than 81.3% (26/32) in the control group (P<0.05). At the follow-up, the VAS scores in the two groups were slightly higher than those after 1 month of treatment, but the difference was still statistically significant as compared with those before treatment (P<0.05), and the observation group was still superior to the control group (P<0.05). CONCLUSION: The combination of intradermal needing combined with rehabilitation intervention can effectively alleviate knee pain and improve joint function. It has a beneficial effect on the rehabilitation of middle and early knee osteoarthritis.